Health Fair Raises Awareness of Homelessness

Lowell Transitional Living Center

What kept graduate students from the Nursing Department busy at the end of the semester was the drive to end homelessness. They celebrated National Nurses’ Week by teaming up with the Lowell Transitional Living Center (LTLC) to promote the health fair “People Helping People Project.”

The fair was held in collaboration with shelter nurse Kathy Fitzpatrick. The project was supervised by Tracy Ramos, president of nursing for the Graduate Student Organization (GSO), and Sharon Lefebvre, department secretary, who have joined the 10-year campaign to end homelessness in Lowell.

They set up booths at the fair, giving information on diabetes, foot care, hypertension, STDs, hepatitis, emotional wellbeing and psychiatric illness. They also distributed nutritious snacks, flip-flops and some 80 pairs of socks, and encouraged donors to enter a raffle contest. The fair was visited by 75-100 people who had the opportunity to learn more and interact with budding nurse practitioners, as well as experts from the Nursing Department.

“The Nursing Graduate Student Organization is an example of how applying theory to practice in a much-needed community service can have an outstanding impact,” says Prof. Karen Devereaux Melillo, chair of the Nursing Department.

“We’ve received such a good response that we’ve now planned for this to be an annual event,” says Ramos.